Stone Gardens: "Dying is but going home" was a fitting epitaph for a Polk County pioneer who homesteaded near Acorn

In the ancient hills of Polk County, where the Ouachita River winds through ancient forests and family plots, the headstones at Owens Chapel Cemetery tell stories of pioneers and hsrd won roots. One marker stands out for James Marion "Jim" Owens, a Civil War veteran whose life bridged the frontier hardships of 19th-century Arkansas and Texas.

Born on August 20, 1844, near Conway in what was then the Van Buren County area, Owens grew up in a time when families carved homesteads from wilderness.

His father, William Jackson Owens, a Missouri-born farmer and teacher who had served as justice of the peace, and his mother, Frances "Fannie" Davis Owens, from middle Tennessee, had settled in Arkansas where they met and raised their family.

William's father, Horner Owens, carried Scotch-Irish heritage from Missouri, while Fannie's father, Jesse Davis, numbered among Van Buren County's early settlers.

The Owens family moved through several Arkansas counties before reaching Polk County around 1862. That same year, seeking safety amid the chaos of the Civil War, they headed for Texas.

William died before the family could fully establish itself, possibly in the Waxahachie area after a heart attack triggered during frontier labors.

Fannie returned to Polk County with several children after the war, where she lived until her death in 1910 and burial in Owens Chapel Cemetery. Young Jim, the eldest of three sons and five daughters, absorbed the lessons of farm life even with limited formal schooling.

Intelligent and observant, he developed a deep knowledge of the land and its ways.

During the Civil War, Owens found himself on the Texas frontier. For three years, he served in the Home Guard in Burnet County, a Confederate-aligned militia unit tasked with defending against threats ranging from Union forces to outlaws and raids.

His service earned him recognition as a Confederate veteran, later inscribed on his stone alongside the poignant epitaph is a fitting epitath

After the war, he returned to Arkansas and on December 16, 1867, married Angelana White in Polk County. She was the daughter of early settlers Raleigh M. and Louisa L. White, who had claimed land along the Ouachita River before dying when Angelana was young. The couple built their life on the very farm where her parents had first settled, seven miles north of the old county seat of Dallas.

There, Owens cleared land, raised stock and crops, and expanded the property to some 400 acres with about 100 under cultivation. He and Angelana had 12 children, though several died young, a common sorrow of the era.

Those who survived carried forward the family name through marriages and migrations of their own. Owens proved a prosperous farmer known for excellent fences, orchards and buildings, all earned through his industry and his wife's steadfast partnership.

Neighbors praised him as a model citizen whose improvements transformed raw acreage into productive homestead.

Beyond the fields, Owens contributed to the community's fabric. He joined Dallas Lodge No. 128 of the Free and Accepted Masons and the local Farmers' Alliance chapter at Owens Chapel

. A longtime steward in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, following his parents' faith, he balanced spiritual leadership with practical service. His wife belonged to the Missionary Baptist Church, reflecting the blended religious traditions that sustained many pioneer families.

O

wens died on April 4, 1914, at age 69 in Little Rock while seeking medical care. He was laid to rest in Owens Chapel Cemetery in Acorn, where his stone still marks a life of migration, service, and stewardship.

His story, like the weathered markers around it, endures as a testament to the generations who tamed Arkansas's western frontier.

In the "Stone Gardens" of Owens Chapel, Jim Owens rests among kin, his legacy of quiet determination etched not only in granite but in the land his hands helped cultivate and the descendants who still trace their roots to this corner of the River Valley.